The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981 Wortel-LondonD. (2025). The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 336 pages.

For many who had rallied behind Mamdani's affordability-centered message during his moon-shot campaign, this was welcome newsparticularly when it became evident that Su will have jurisdiction over the city's massive quasi-governmental development arm, the New York City Economic Development Corporation.The city's business establishment was, in contrast, horrified."We should be concerned," outgoing New York City Partnership CEO Kathryn Wylde said on the WABC Cats Roundtable on February 8 of this year, "because it appears that the city is no longer going to be doing economic development.It's going to be doing economic justicewhatever that means."The fiscal and economic history that Daniel Wortel-London recounts in The Menace of Prosperity is a powerful lens through which to interpret this political moment.